Berlin Wednesday kicks off the reconstruction of its palace, a divisive 590 million euro ($783 million) project to recreate the baroque architectural jewel whose post-war remnants were razed by communist leaders.

President Joachim Gauck will attend the official laying of the foundation stone for the Berlin Palace, on the city's legendary leafy axis, Unter den Linden, which Prussian princes called home.

The new building, due to be inaugurated in 2019, will house a cultural center instead but has faced a bumpy road in its years-long planning over the site's historic significance and the price tag for a city known as "poor, but sexy."

While the German government and city of Berlin will stump up most of the bill for the building work, almost 80 million euros of the total cost are being collected by German aristocrat Wilhelm von Boddien, who has campaigned for years for the palace to be rebuilt.

The project has also provoked controversy because it involved pulling down the Palace of the Republic, which housed the parliament of the former East Germany and a cultural and leisure center cherished by many East Germans.

The enormous building with glass and marble facades, completed in 1976 and found to be contaminated with asbestos, was demolished in 2006.

AFP